Other library resource(s)

The film musical is usually identified almost exclusively with Hollywood, specifically those lavish star-filled films made during the heyday of the studio era. Furthermore, it has often been considered a genre that sings volumes about the American character and national sensibility, and for this reason, the film musical has also been taken to be an American “invention” tied to American show business traditions. ...

Commercial film production in the United States developed rapidly after World War I. Theater programs focused on full-length narrative feature films along with secondary one-to-two-reel films such as newsreels, comedy shorts, travelogues, and (by the late 1920s) cartoons. Industry consolidation favored efficient large-scale production practices. ...

Keeping up with Film Studies journal literature

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A quick definition for musical films

An internationally popular film genre, featuring music, song, and dance in varying combinations, often intertwined with a romance plot with a happy ending. Film versions of operas and stage musicals made in the silent era were usually screened with live musical accompaniment, often as part of theatrical entertainments featuring musical acts (see music). Some scholars contend that it was the popularity of these shows with audiences that prompted the development of synchronized sound after the mid 1920s.

In film studies, the Hollywood musical has long been the subject of analysis and investigation across a range of topics: these include the various ways in which plot and musical numbers are integrated in a film's narrative; issues of gender, sexuality, and spectacle; questions of studio style (MGM's lavish Technicolor musicals of the 1950s are a case in point); the contributions of key creative personnel (such as directors Ernst Lubitsch and Vincente Minnelli, choreographer Busby Berkeley, and performers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers); and investigations of the genre's industrial, social, and cultural contexts.

Kuhn, A. and Westwell, G. (2012). "Musical." In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 23 Dec. 2015

Getting started

To find musical films in the Library's collections, you can click on the subject headings below. The collections are split between Baker Stack Level 4 and Paddock Music Library.

Introductory reading(s)

The musical has been called the most popular form of entertainment in the world. This work examines the subjects, themes, and contemporary relevance of Hollywood musicals through their long popularity, placing each show in historical and political context and analyzing it in detail. ...

This encyclopedic reference to the American movie musical identifies and describes the musicals and the artists who made them. Film entries range from the legendary "The Jazz Singer" in 1927 to "Fantasia 2000." Artists ranging from Gene Kelly to Elvis Presley, Busby Berkeley, and John Travolta are included, as are musicians as varied as Irving Berlin, Paul Williams, and the Beatles. Entries also detail animated musicals, studios, perettas, rock documentaries, sequels and remakes, and dance movies. As a reference work or as a book for browsing, this encyclopedia serves as a valuable companion to Stage It with Music: An Encyclopedic Guide to the American Musical Theatre and will appeal to film scholars and fans alike. Information is cross referenced throughout. A chronological list of musicals and an appendix of Academy Award-winning musicals are included.

This research guide includes more than 1,400 annotated entries related to the genre as it appears on stage and screen. It includes reference works, monographs, articles, anthologies, and websites related to the musical. Separate sections are devoted to sub-genres (such as operetta and megamusical), non-English language musical genres in the U.S., traditions outside the U.S., individual shows, creators, performers, and performance. The second edition reflects the notable increase in musical theater scholarship since 2000. In addition to printed materials, it includes multimedia and electronic resources.

This study explores one of the most popular and successful of genres, yet one that has not fully enjoyed critical recognition to match. Combining a detailed analysis of individual musicals with an in-depth consideration of racial and gender issues, Susan Smith examines the rich interactions that occur between music, performance and narrrative, as well as the use of the female voice and the female singer in certain 'Pygmalion'/'Svengali'-style narratives.

What movie was the first to combine live action with animated cartoon characters? What movie did Marion Brando first sing in? This book answers these and thousands of other interesting facts about Hollywood's favorite musicals. Provides facts and trivia for more than 300 movies. Each entry includes the screenplay writer, producer, director, choreographer, cast list, song list, release date, plot summary and interesting notes surrounding the production, cast and spin-offs that the movie inspired.

Musicals adapted to the big screen—from West Side Story to The Phantom of the Opera—have enjoyed a staggering amount of success since the 1940s, and this guide is especially tailored to library patrons looking for help selecting the right flick to watch. The book is organized by decade, allowing readers to learn about the nuances of each era of musical movie production, and a description is paired with each film along with an explanation of why it is worth viewing.

Critics the world over have often loudly lamented that the movie musical is a dead art form. However, the old razzle-dazzle has had a comeback. Author and film expert John Kenneth Muir faces the music in Singing a New Tune, a rollicking study that traces the rebirth of the film musical from the dark days of the early 1990s - when all the musical numbers were cut from the film I'll Do Anything due to preview audience hostility - to the current heyday of Moulin Rouge, Chicago (Academy Award winner for Best Picture 2002), and Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. ...

Drawing on meticulous research, sharp wit, and insightful analysis, Richard Barrios illuminates the origins of the movie musical in this extensively revised and updated edition of his highly acclaimed A Song in the Dark. From Warner Bros. and Jolson, to the Oscar-winning Broadway Melody and beyond, here is the whole funny and peculiar history of these films, their creators, and their audiences.

This new collection addresses the film musical, a central genre in the Hollywood studio system, which has also been important within British, Hindi and Chinese cinema. Leading international scholars explore key issues, traditions, subgenres, stars and films of the musical film from the 1930s to the present.

In this personal and opinionated book Tom Hischak takes a close look at what happens when a Broadway musical goes to Hollywood, and less often when Hollywood comes to Broadway. The musicals discussed range from 'The Desert Song' (1927), the first sound film of a Broadway musical, to 'Chicago,' the 2002 film made from the 1975 Broadway hit. Film musicals that became Broadway shows range from 'Lili' (1953) to 'Never Gonna Dance' (2003). The book assumes a basic familiarity with famous musicals but lesser known works are fully explained.

Little has been written about the Spanish film musical, a genre usually associated with the early Franco dictatorship and dismissed by critics as reactionary, escapist fare. A timely and valuable corrective, White Gypsies shows how the Spanish folkloric musical films of the 1940s and '50s are inextricably tied to anxious concerns about race--especially, but not only, Gypsiness. ...

Finding articles & journals

Articles and other writings about musicals can be found in many publications. We don't have journals that look exclusively at musicals. However, you can use eitherFilm & Television Literature Index to find relevant articles or the SUMMON box below.

A Selected list of musical films

Jude is a dock worker from Liverpool who travels to the United States in the 1960s to find his estranged father. There, he falls in love with sheltered American teenager Lucy. When her brother, Max, is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, they become involved in peace activism.

After Jake Blues is released from prison, he and brother Elwood go to visit the old home where they were raised by nuns. They learn the church is no longer supporting the institution and will sell the place to the education authority. The only way to keep the place open is if the $5000 tax on the property is paid within the next 11 days. The brothers want to help and decide to put their blues band back together and raise the money by staging a big show. As they set off on their "mission from god" they seem to make more enemies than friends along the way.

A troubled romance laced with barbed wit and pointed melodrama and an affectionate view of the Indian film industry (aka Bollywood). A visiting English author becomes involved with a married Indian movie star; when the romance fizzles she flees to an ashram.

Based on Jane Austen's classic novel, Pride and Prejudice, with a Bollywood twist. In Ammritsar, the determined Mrs. Bakshi sets out to find matches for her four daughters. Second sister, Lalita, meets American Will Darcy - is it love?

Sally Bowles, an American singer in 1930s Berlin, falls in love with bi-sexual Brian. They are both then seduced by Max, a rich playboy. Sally becomes pregnant, and Brian offers to marry her... All the characters are linked by the Kit-Kat club, a nightspot where Sally sings. Around them the Nazi Party rises to power.

The powerful story of a country music star's rocky road to redemption. Bad Blake is a boozy, broken-down singer who reaches for salvation with the help of Jean, a journalist who discovers the real man behind the music. But will Bad's hard-livin' ways and crazy heart cost him his last chance at a comeback?

Arriving at her new college, Beca finds herself not right for any clique but somehow is muscled into one that she never would have picked on her own: alongside mean girls, sweet girls and weird girls whose only thing in common is how good they sound when they sing together. When Beca leads this a cappella singing group out of their traditional arrangements and perfect harmonies into all-new mash-ups, they fight to climb their way to the top of college music competitions.

Inspired by a true story, it's 1968, and four young, talented Australian Aboriginal girls learn about love, friendship and war when their all girl group The Sapphires entertain the US troops in Vietnam.